58. Only Fools Rush In (Si Hai); movie review

 

ONLY FOOLS RUSH IN (SI HAI)

Cert 12A

130 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate threat

It was Chinese New Year and that meant an annual visit to Sheffield Odeon.

Apparently, Nottingham's population of Chinese and Chinese descendants doesn't hit the threshold to show the country's movies even though it only differs by about 1,000.

Anyway, Mrs W and I made the near-hour journey, waltzed around our son's university city to reach our 10,000 steps for the day and settled down to Han Han's romance Only Fools Rush In.

Actually, I would have written rom-com because there are laugh-out-loud moments but there are also some surprisingly dark ones.

It stars Liu Hao-ran as a loner who looks after his dementia-suffering grandmother while eking money by doing impromptu motorbike stunts.

He has a major crush on a waitress (Liu Hao-cun) of a small restaurant and eats there to make contact but has no idea how to express his feelings.

His slow-slow approach is complicated by the arrival of his estranged father (Shen Teng) and her overly dramatic brother (Zheng Yin).

The movie descends into farce early on when misunderstandings and accidents appear to thwart our hero's romantic intentions.

However, it then settles down to one of friendship, loyalty, moral fortitude, more than a hint of love, set to the backdrop of motorbike races.

The action is often intense but, just as he does in the Detective Chinatown series, Hao-ran keeps a calm presence amid the chaos.

Meanwhile, there are some genuinely funny moments which produced a few chuckles for Mrs W and me and many more for the native-speakers in the audience.

But they are interspersed with moments of surprising darkness.

Mrs W thought it was all a bit slushy but I was surprised how Only Fools Rush in touched me.

Reasons to watch: Original romance

Reasons to avoid: Maybe a bit slushy for some

Laughs: Three for me but more for native speakers

Jumps: One

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 7/10

Did you know? Liu Hao-ran began his acting career in the romance film Beijing Love Story. His performance garnered him the Best New Actor nomination at the Beijing College Student Film Festival. He was also chosen as the Best New Performer by the 2014 Golden Ticket Cinema Fan Club.

The final word. Han Han: "I can't describe the film in one sentence, but it's a road movie. You may laugh a lot in the theatre, but you will feel it's a very lonely movie in the end. Yet, you can still feel love in it." China.org.cn

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